Quartz crystal wrist watch

ABSTRACT

A wrist watch having a quartz crystal time standard oscillator driving a pulse shaper circuit including counters for reducing the frequency of the signal from said oscillator to a timekeeping frequency for application to an electro-mechanical converter. A quick-feed correcting cirucit operated by a manual operating switch corrects the second hand indication.

United States Patent 1191 Fujita QUARTZ CRYSTAL WRIST WATCH Kinji Fujita, 10616, Takaki, Shimosuwa-machi, Suwa, Japan Filed: Nov. 20, 1972 Appl. No; 308,214

Inventor:

Foreign Application Priority Data Nov. 18, 1971 Japan.. 46/91893 US. Cl 58/23 R, 58/34, 58/85.5 Int. Cl G04c 3/00 Field of Search 58/23 R, 34-35,

58/85.5, 23 A; 235/92 T; 307/225 R; 328/48 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,643,418 2/1972 Polin et a1 58/85.5

[ Feb. 19, 1974 3,707,071 12/1972 Waltonl 58 23 R 3,690,058 9/1972 Kurita.... 58/23 R 3,643,419 2/1972 Motta 58/23 R Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-Edith Simmons Jackmon Attorney, Agent, or FirmBlum, Moscovitz, Friedman & Kaplan [57] ABSTRACT A wrist watch having a quartz crystal time standard oscillator driving a pulse shaper circuit including counters for reducing the frequency of the signal from said oscillator to a time-keeping frequency for application to an electro-mechanical converter. A quick-feedcorrecting cirucit operated by a manual operating switch corrects the second hand indication.

3 Claims, Drawing Figures PATENTED 1 9 4 sum 2 or 2 1 I QUARTZ. CRYSTAL WRIST WATCH BACKGROUND OF TI-IE INVENTION DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG. 1, the quartz wrist watch de- This invention relates to time correction of a quartz 5 picted consists ofan oscillator including quartz crystal crystal wrist watch having an electro-mechanical converter such as a pulse motor operated by low frequency driving signals of the order of several Hz or less.

Quartz crystal wrist watches have high accuracies, their monthly error being on the order of t 5 seconds. For this reason, the time indication of such watches is seldom incorrect. However, because of the accuracy involved, wearers become anxious about errors within the range of several seconds which arise after long use and may be eager to correct such errors. In conventional quartz crystal watches, the correction of such small errors, if the error was a lag, required stopping the watch once, advancing the minute hand, and resetting the watch. This complicated procedure detracts from the otherwise valuable high accuracy provided by such watches. By the arrangement in accordance with the invention, means is provided so that correction of operation of a single manualswitch.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Generally speaking, in accordance with the invention, a quartz crystal wrist watch is provided having a quartz crystal time standard oscillator for producing a high frequency time standard signal, an integrated pulse shaper circuit means including counters for reducing the frequency of said time standard signals to a low frequency timing signal, and an electro-mechanical converter means for driving the time keeping apparatus of the watch in response to said time keeping signal. A manual correcting switch and a quick-feed correcting circuit operated by said correcting switch are provided for the selective application of pulses to said electromechanical converter means for correcting the second hand of the watch.

The correcting circuit means may include a monostable multivibrator. Said correcting'switch is also connected so as to serve as a preset switch for a counter circuit of said pulse shaper means, when operated.

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide means for insuring an easy and sure correction of the second hand in a quartz crystal time piece.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification and drawings.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a fuller understanding of the invention, reference is had to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a'block and schematic diagram of the electric circuitry and time indication mechanism of a quartz crystal wrist watch in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram showing the current waveforms at five locations in the circuit of FIG. 1.

X and an inverter 1, which produces a high frequency time standard signal. This high frequency time standard signal is applied to the ,IN terminal of pulse shaper C.

Said pulse shaper consists of a series of divider circuits for reducing the frequency of the high frequency time standard signal from the oscillator to low frequency timing signals at output terminals OUT, and OUT;. The output from output terminal OUT, is applied through inverters I is applied through inverters I and I, to one end of motor driving coil L. The output of output terminal OUT, is applied through NOR gate NR, and inverter I, to the other end of said motor driving coil. The current i passes through said driving coil.

Where the frequency of the time standard signal is 16.384 kHz, pulse shaper C may have 15 binary counter stages. The waveforms for such an embodiment are depicted in FIG. 2. As shown therein, the motor driving current i consists of alternating pulses at one second intervals to alternately generate north and south poles in stator S. Rotor RT is polarized into six poles as shown in FIG. 1, so that said rotor is turned by I signal from switch SW and a feedback signal from the output of inverter 1,. The signal applied to NOR, is designated OUT Resistor R and capacitor C determine the time constant of operation of the multivibrator. Switch SW is also connected to terminal PR of pulse shaper C, which terminal is connectedso as to preset one of the counters of the chain of counters in pulse shaper C each time switch SW is closed.

Accordingly, when correcting switch SW is closed, an output voltage OUT, from the multivibrator is generated and a current pulse of the same polarity as the output from terminal OUT of pulse shaper C is applied to motor driving coil L. The above mentioned counter of pulse shaper C is preset at the same time. If correcting switch SW is opened immediately, an output voltage is generated at terminal OUT, of pulse shaper C and a current pulse of reverse polarity to the pulse generated when said switch was closed flows through inverters I and 1 to driving coil L. Thus, repeated opening and closing of correcting switch SW advances rotor RT by corresponding to two seconds. On the other hand, if the operation of the watch is to be stopped, the correcting switch SW is maintained in the closed position. In this manner, correction of the setting of the second hand of the quartz crystal wrist watch may be readily accomplished.

In the preferredembodiment, the pulse width of the signal OUT, is made equal to the pulse width of the signal at output OUT To prevent overlap between outputs OUT, and OUT a capacitor is connected in parallel with switch SW. The foregoing circuitry can be formed from complementary field-effect transistors, with the exception of a few exterior parts such as the capacitors, so as to limit the power drain. The pulse shaper C may be formed completely from such complementary field-effect transistors. If this approach is utilized to produce monolithic integrated circuits 1C, a strong driving signal may be produced in a compact quartz crystal watch. 7

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, and those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

What is claimed is:

l. A quartz crystal wrist watch comprising quartz crystal oscillator means for producing a high frequency a time standard signal; pulse shaper circuit means for receiving said high frequency time standard signal; a time indication drive train including a second hand; an electro-mechanical converter means for driving said time keeping drive train and second hand in response to said timing signals; a manual correcting switch; and quickfeed correcting circuit means for applying a time correction pulse to said electro-mechanical converter in response to the operation of said correcting switch for advancing said second hand an incremental distance, said pulse shaper circuit means including a plurality of counter stages, said correcting circuit means being adapted to operatively connect said correcting switch to at least one of said counter stages for applying a presetting signal to said counter stage in response to the operation of said correcting switch, said correcting circuit means being adapted so that a time correcting pulse is applied to said electro-mcchanical converter means when said correcting switch is closed, and the counter to which said correcting switch is connected is preset when said correcting switch is closed.

2. A quartz crystal wrist watch comprising quartz crystal oscillator means for producing a high frequency time standard signal; pulse shaper circuit means for receiving said high frequency time standard signal; a time indication drive train including a second hand; an electro-mechanical converter means for driving said time keeping drive train and second hand in response to said timing signals; a manual correcting switch; and quickfeed correcting circuit means for applying a time correcting pulse to said electro-mechanical converter in response to each operation of said correcting switch for advancing said second hand an incremental distance, said correcting circuit means including a monostable multivibrator circuit means intermediate said correcting switch and said electro-mechanical converter means.

3. A quartz crystal'wrist watch as recited in claim 3, wherein said electro-mechanical converter includes a driving coil, said pulse shaper circuit means having first and second output terminals for producing pulses of opposite polarity, and including gate means for receiving a signal from the second of said pulse shaper circuit means output terminals and from said monostable multivibrator circuit means, the pulse output of said second output terminal and said monostable multivibrator circuit means being of the same polarity.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO. 3,792,577 DATED February 19, 1974 mvrmorux) Kinj i Fuj ita It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

On the title page, after the name of the Inventor,

insert ---[73] Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha. Suwa Seikosha--.

[SEAL] Affesl.

RUTH C. MASON Attesting Officer Signed and Scaled this twenty-sixth Day Of July 1977 C. MARSHALL DANN Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Ln M UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 v CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION 3,792 ,577' Dated Feb. 19,1974

Patent No.

Inventor (K) 1 j i Fuj ita It is certified that error appears in the aboveidentified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 4, line 25, the claim reference numeral "3' should Y read --2--.

signed 'and sealed this 7th day of January 1 975.

(SEAL) Attest:

'mccoY M. GIBSON JR. t c. MARSHALL DANN- Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents FORM v i USCOMNl-DC scan-Pan I I 0.5. sovinmllm' nun-mm OFFICE: mo o-au-au, 

1. A quartz crystal wrist watch comprising quartz crystal oscillator means for producing a high frequency time standard signal; pulse shaper circuit means for receiving said high frequency time standard signal; a time indication drive train including a second hand; an electro-mechanical converter means for driving said time keeping drive train and second hand in response to said timing signals; a manual correcting switch; and quick-feed correcting circuit means for applying a time correction pulse to said electro-mechanical converter in response to the operation of said correcting switch for advancing said second hand an incremental distance, said pulse shaper circuit means including a plurality of counter stages, said correcting circuit means being adapted to operatively connect said correcting switch to at least one of said counter stages for applying a presetting signal to said counter stage in response to the operation of said correcting switch, said correcting circuit means being adapted so that a time correcting pulse is applied to said electro-mechanical converter means when said correcting switch is closed, and the counter to which said correcting switch is connected is preset when said correcting switch is closed.
 2. A quartz crystal wrist watch comprising quartz crystal oscillator means for producing a high frequency time standard signal; pulse shaper circuit means for receiving said high frequency time standard signal; a time indication drive train including a second hand; an electro-mechanical converter means for driving said time keeping drive train and second hand in response to said timing signals; a manual correcting switch; and quick-feed correcting circuit means for applying a time correcting pulse to said electro-mechanical converter in response to each operation of said correcting switch for advancing said second hand an incremental distance, said correcting circuit means including a monostable multivibrator circuit means intermediate said correcting switch and said electro-mechanical converter means.
 3. A quartz crystal wrist watch as recited in claim 3, wherein said electro-mechanical converter includes a driving coil, said pulse shaper circuit means having first and second output terminals for producing pulses of opposite polarity, and including gate means for receiving a signal from the second of said pulse shaper circuit means output terminals and from said monostable multivibrator circuit means, the pulse output of said second output terminal and said monostable multivibrator circuit means being of the same polarity. 